


That beauty

by Green_Sphynx



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Dancing, Elf Discrimination, Elf/Human Relationship(s), F/M, Fluff, Gossip, Masked ball, ignore the nobles and mind the puppy eyes looking at you instead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 09:36:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12454575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Green_Sphynx/pseuds/Green_Sphynx
Summary: There is a beautiful woman at the masked ball and Carver knows he wants to dance with her.





	That beauty

Carver didn’t need to see the face to recognise the woman.

Alright, the company she kept was a dead giveaway as well, but it was her figure that mesmerised him, and told him exactly who he was looking at.

No, he’d never seen her in a sleek dress like that, hugging her curves so closely it accentuated them. She once complained about not having Isabela’s voluptuous figure, but she had all the curves right where they belonged.

Carver still had the impression he could fit his hands around her at any given place, so thin and fragile she was.

He knew for a fact that he couldn’t really, but it didn’t make him stop from wanting to try. He wanted to feel her curves like the dress was, that sleek dark green with a low shimmer, framing a pale décolleté and making pale arms stand out all the more.

Her vallaslin peeked out beneath the mask she wore, a delicate little thing of golden filigree tied with a dark green ribbon to match her dress.

He had never seen her hair out of its usual simple style before, but now it hung in full curls around her face, making the mask complete.

No, if he hadn’t spent a shameful amount of hours just staring at her, she would’ve been almost impossible to recognise.

The nobles around her hid behind their fans and gossiped while she wove between them on nimble, bare feet, clearly unbothered by the cold marble dance floor. She should’ve worn shoes for decency rather than practicality but... Carver could hardly be bothered. She looked natural like this.

She looked like a frail spirit from the forest, like a fairy or something mythical.

She looked beautiful.

Only when she nearly reached him he realised her beautiful dress was terribly out of fashion, bustles being the current hype among the nobles. The disapproval of the ladies around her was almost palpable.

But she was so beautiful, Carver had a hard time imagining their disapproval being from anything but jealousy.

He took the last few steps to meet her before she got to him first, holding out one gloved hand to her. She giggled nervously, head turning for large green eyes to flash around the ball room, while simultaneously putting her delicate hand in his.

Gloved as well, cream kid leather trimmed with gold. Carver had no idea where she got these clothes from, but they looked like molten jewels and gold had been poured over her to fit her shapes to perfection, glittering and shining like the sun through the canopy of a deep forest-

“Everybody is staring at me,” she told him nervously, and his hand closed around hers to pull it closer, to place a kiss on the back of her hand. She gasped in surprise, a similar sound washing through the nobles.

_Did the the younger Lord Amell just kiss that elf’s hand? Is she a mistress? In the middle of the ballroom! Lady Amell would be ashamed!_

Fans fanned all the harder in disapproval and Carver offered Merrill a toothy grin.

“Yeah, they’re all staring. You’re too beautiful for this lot.”

“You think?” Merrill glanced around, worried rather than flattered. “Should I put on one of those silly butt pillows too?”

“No, you’re perfect.”

“But you said-”

When she glanced up at him again, he could see her eyes widening behind her mask. Next, her pupils dilated, and her next nervous giggle was more of a giddy kind.

“You’re just being sweet, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know, am I?” He bowed to her, and she tittered in delight, accepting his wordless request for a dance. He took her hand and waist - really one hand nearly fit around her waist! - and lead her onto the dance floor.

Carver knew how to dance only because his mother drilled it into him. Merrill had no idea, but was surprisingly good at following his lead. And if she stepped on his toes, Carver didn’t actually notice, her being barefoot and all.

_He is dancing with an elf!_

He was dancing with Merrill.

He was on one of his mother’s parties, puffed and propped up like a doll, and he was _having fun_ for once. He was dancing with Merrill and she was beautiful.

“You should always come to these parties. I hate them, but it’s fun with you around.”

“I only just arrived!”

“My point exactly.”

Merrill giggled, Carver laughed.

Merrill was never invited to a party by Leandra again, but neither was Carver forced through half as many as before.

He did find Merrill at the dinnertable a few weeks later though, and his mother looking rather proud of herself.

And dress or no, Merrill was always beautiful, and he would always spend embarrassingly much time just staring at her lovely form, his hands twitching to hug her curves like that one dress did.

 


End file.
